Fellowship With God
Fellowship With God
The Living Word - Weekly Bible Reflection
November 19th, 2025
Scripture: 1 John 1:1–2:6
November 19th, 2025
Scripture: 1 John 1:1–2:6
Introduction
Tonight, we begin our study of 1 John, a letter written by one of Jesus’ closest friends—John, the disciple who walked intimately with Jesus and witnessed His life firsthand. John writes with deep affection, clear conviction, and a passion for truth. In this opening passage, he reminds us that Jesus is both eternal and fully God, yet also the man he touched, heard, and followed.
As we read, John invites us into fellowship—with God, with Christ, and with one another. He shows us that life with Jesus is marked by light, honesty, confession, transformation, and joyful obedience. His words challenge us to walk like Jesus walked, trusting that His grace cleanses, restores, and empowers us.
Let’s open our hearts to the truth that God is light—and that His light drives out darkness, brings freedom, and draws us into deeper joy.
Tonight, we begin our study of 1 John, a letter written by one of Jesus’ closest friends—John, the disciple who walked intimately with Jesus and witnessed His life firsthand. John writes with deep affection, clear conviction, and a passion for truth. In this opening passage, he reminds us that Jesus is both eternal and fully God, yet also the man he touched, heard, and followed.
As we read, John invites us into fellowship—with God, with Christ, and with one another. He shows us that life with Jesus is marked by light, honesty, confession, transformation, and joyful obedience. His words challenge us to walk like Jesus walked, trusting that His grace cleanses, restores, and empowers us.
Let’s open our hearts to the truth that God is light—and that His light drives out darkness, brings freedom, and draws us into deeper joy.
Opening Prayer
Father, we come before You grateful for Your Word and for the testimony of those who walked with Jesus. Open our eyes to see Your light clearly tonight. Reveal any darkness we’ve been holding onto, and give us courage to confess and receive Your cleansing grace. Help us understand Your love more deeply and desire to walk as Jesus walked. Unite us in fellowship with one another as we seek You together.
Amen.
Father, we come before You grateful for Your Word and for the testimony of those who walked with Jesus. Open our eyes to see Your light clearly tonight. Reveal any darkness we’ve been holding onto, and give us courage to confess and receive Your cleansing grace. Help us understand Your love more deeply and desire to walk as Jesus walked. Unite us in fellowship with one another as we seek You together.
Amen.
Bible Study
This is the first of three writings (in addition to the gospel he wrote) that we have from John, another one of Jesus’ closest friends and disciples. John is the one at the last supper that Peter motions to ask Jesus who will betray him, and who seems to have an especially close relationship, calling himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” He and his brother James are the “sons of thunder” called from the fishing boat of their father, Zebedee, after Andrew and Peter.
John is writing likely near Ephesus (to whom Paul wrote Ephesians) after the destruction of the temple by Rome in 70 AD, and before 100 AD when early writers like Polycarp and Papias cite it.
1 John 1:1-5
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—2that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
This writing begins in a similar way to John’s gospel: a poetic, grand introduction to who Jesus is. John wants to be very clear when he writes that Jesus is both fully the Son of God, who was from the beginning, and who is life; while also being the living, breathing, speaking man who John knew and loved. John also emphasizes that he has actually seen the “life that was revealed” and touched, and testified about Jesus.
He is writing to make sure that they have fellowship together, because having fellowship with the Father, and with the Son, is something that we share together as believers. Just like you are someone’s sibling because you share a parent (whether by blood or adoption). His joy is made complete by making sure his siblings in Christ experience the goodness of the message of Jesus. John uses contrast over and over in his letter— light and dark, lying and truth, confessing or rejecting—to show the difference between a life that is walked with Jesus, and without Jesus.
1 John 1:5-2:6:
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.
The first lie, and the first turn away from God, come when humanity stops believes that rejecting God won’t lead to death. That God is not truly good in all that he says. Every time that we decide not to trust God it is because we believe he might want most things that are good for us, but he keeps some good things hidden away for himself.
But God is light. The first words that God speaks in our scripture look out over the darkness and chaos and says, “let there be light” and there is. That is what God has done from the beginning, and what he still does today: bringing light to wherever he goes, and pushing out darkness.
6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. 7 If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
John reminds us of the fellowship that we have with God, and just like Paul and James, he is convinced that having an encounter with God changes us. Just like you can’t walk in the sun and not have the shadows chased away, we cannot walk with Jesus and not have the darkness chased away. If we are walking with Jesus, we are walking in light: in goodness, and love for God and each other.
We have fellowship with one another in the light, because we share in Jesus and the light that he provides. If we say that we walk with Jesus but really, we’re walking in darkness John says we are “lying and not practicing the truth.” We are still falling for the first lie that the darkness is better than Jesus.
and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
God doesn’t expect us to change on our own. In fact, it’s when we try to do it on our own that the biggest problems come in. Jesus was the offering that cleans us from all sin. Because of what Jesus has done, we are told to be confident that we can approach God and walk with him.
But if we try to do things our own way, and deny that there are problems in our life, or say that our own failures aren’t really bad because others are worse, then we’re lying even to ourselves. The truth is not in us, because we are still falling for the lie that we can do it on our own, and that all of God’s talk about sin and failure is just to make us feel guilty and control us. But that’s a lie.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Jesus shows us our sin, and calls us to repent so that he can forgive us and make us clean! We often think of confession or turning away from our sin as a sacrifice or a chore, but Jesus promises that it is freedom. We carry debts and dirt that we can’t do anything about on our own, and Jesus pays what we owe and cleans us up. He brings light to our darkness.
But if someone completely rejects the idea that they have sinned, then they reject their need for Jesus, and call him a liar. Jesus says that we have all sinned, and that we all need him. He says repeatedly that they biggest stumbling block is not the sins we often call out, it is the sin of believing that God is not good, and that we are. The biggest issue in our lives is not that we make mistakes, but that we refuse to forgive, or ask for forgiveness.
2 My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. 2 He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
John’s desire (and ours) is to avoid sinning altogether. We want to grow and be changed into the kind of people who love God and his people all of the time with all that we are. But that is a process, and one that won’t be perfect this lifetime while we’re still in darkness. So when we do sin, we have Jesus’ blood to clean us, but he goes even farther: Jesus advocates for us. This isn’t because Jesus is nice and God is mean, this is because God is the one who is light and has no darkness. Like a judge, God would not be good if he simply ignored sin and cruelty and abuse.
But Jesus is our advocate (a word sometimes used for lawyers) who brings our case to the father and who shows that the penalty of our failures have been paid, and we are no longer guilty. He is sent by the father because the father loves us. This example is more to assure us that we have nothing to fear from God’s judgement: because Jesus is righteous, we are too. Jesus sacrifice bring us into perfect fellowship with the father, and not just us, but the whole world.
3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete.
The mark of someone who has been changed by the love of Jesus and filled with the power of his Spirit is that we actually follow him and listen to him. This is what Jesus invited Peter into after he had stumbled and fallen. This is the beauty and freedom of the Christian life: endless grace, so that we can follow Jesus with all that we are and walk in the light as he walks in the light.
Using our freedom to run back to darkness shows that we don’t really understand what Jesus has done. If we say that we love Jesus and follow him, but there is no change in us and no desire to actually live out what our mouths say, then we are liars. As John has made clear, it is not that we will never sin or stumble. But God’s truth is powerful, we cannot remain completely unchanged by his love. His light shows us the truth so that we can choose the same things that he chooses. When we truly love him, and truly understand his love, we want to keep his word, and in his grace, he helps us to. It is a process that will one day be made complete.
This is how we know we are in him: 6 The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.
Sometimes in our desire to focus on the goodness and grace of God, we forget that God has saved us for something. The purpose of grace is not to say that our sins don’t matter so we can keep doing whatever we want, the purpose of grace is to free us to walk with Jesus in light and truth. We were created to do the good works that he planned for us ahead of time: to truly love one another and enjoy fellowship and friendship together because we truly share in Jesus.
Just as it would be crazy to jump back into a raging ocean after the lifeguard had saved you, John is saying it is crazy for us to return to the darkness of living away from Jesus. If we are living in Jesus, and walking with him, the proof will be that we are in the places that he is, doing the things that he does, with the people that he loves. This is what it means to follow Jesus.
This is the first of three writings (in addition to the gospel he wrote) that we have from John, another one of Jesus’ closest friends and disciples. John is the one at the last supper that Peter motions to ask Jesus who will betray him, and who seems to have an especially close relationship, calling himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” He and his brother James are the “sons of thunder” called from the fishing boat of their father, Zebedee, after Andrew and Peter.
John is writing likely near Ephesus (to whom Paul wrote Ephesians) after the destruction of the temple by Rome in 70 AD, and before 100 AD when early writers like Polycarp and Papias cite it.
1 John 1:1-5
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—2that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
This writing begins in a similar way to John’s gospel: a poetic, grand introduction to who Jesus is. John wants to be very clear when he writes that Jesus is both fully the Son of God, who was from the beginning, and who is life; while also being the living, breathing, speaking man who John knew and loved. John also emphasizes that he has actually seen the “life that was revealed” and touched, and testified about Jesus.
He is writing to make sure that they have fellowship together, because having fellowship with the Father, and with the Son, is something that we share together as believers. Just like you are someone’s sibling because you share a parent (whether by blood or adoption). His joy is made complete by making sure his siblings in Christ experience the goodness of the message of Jesus. John uses contrast over and over in his letter— light and dark, lying and truth, confessing or rejecting—to show the difference between a life that is walked with Jesus, and without Jesus.
1 John 1:5-2:6:
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.
The first lie, and the first turn away from God, come when humanity stops believes that rejecting God won’t lead to death. That God is not truly good in all that he says. Every time that we decide not to trust God it is because we believe he might want most things that are good for us, but he keeps some good things hidden away for himself.
But God is light. The first words that God speaks in our scripture look out over the darkness and chaos and says, “let there be light” and there is. That is what God has done from the beginning, and what he still does today: bringing light to wherever he goes, and pushing out darkness.
6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. 7 If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
John reminds us of the fellowship that we have with God, and just like Paul and James, he is convinced that having an encounter with God changes us. Just like you can’t walk in the sun and not have the shadows chased away, we cannot walk with Jesus and not have the darkness chased away. If we are walking with Jesus, we are walking in light: in goodness, and love for God and each other.
We have fellowship with one another in the light, because we share in Jesus and the light that he provides. If we say that we walk with Jesus but really, we’re walking in darkness John says we are “lying and not practicing the truth.” We are still falling for the first lie that the darkness is better than Jesus.
and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
God doesn’t expect us to change on our own. In fact, it’s when we try to do it on our own that the biggest problems come in. Jesus was the offering that cleans us from all sin. Because of what Jesus has done, we are told to be confident that we can approach God and walk with him.
But if we try to do things our own way, and deny that there are problems in our life, or say that our own failures aren’t really bad because others are worse, then we’re lying even to ourselves. The truth is not in us, because we are still falling for the lie that we can do it on our own, and that all of God’s talk about sin and failure is just to make us feel guilty and control us. But that’s a lie.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Jesus shows us our sin, and calls us to repent so that he can forgive us and make us clean! We often think of confession or turning away from our sin as a sacrifice or a chore, but Jesus promises that it is freedom. We carry debts and dirt that we can’t do anything about on our own, and Jesus pays what we owe and cleans us up. He brings light to our darkness.
But if someone completely rejects the idea that they have sinned, then they reject their need for Jesus, and call him a liar. Jesus says that we have all sinned, and that we all need him. He says repeatedly that they biggest stumbling block is not the sins we often call out, it is the sin of believing that God is not good, and that we are. The biggest issue in our lives is not that we make mistakes, but that we refuse to forgive, or ask for forgiveness.
2 My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. 2 He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
John’s desire (and ours) is to avoid sinning altogether. We want to grow and be changed into the kind of people who love God and his people all of the time with all that we are. But that is a process, and one that won’t be perfect this lifetime while we’re still in darkness. So when we do sin, we have Jesus’ blood to clean us, but he goes even farther: Jesus advocates for us. This isn’t because Jesus is nice and God is mean, this is because God is the one who is light and has no darkness. Like a judge, God would not be good if he simply ignored sin and cruelty and abuse.
But Jesus is our advocate (a word sometimes used for lawyers) who brings our case to the father and who shows that the penalty of our failures have been paid, and we are no longer guilty. He is sent by the father because the father loves us. This example is more to assure us that we have nothing to fear from God’s judgement: because Jesus is righteous, we are too. Jesus sacrifice bring us into perfect fellowship with the father, and not just us, but the whole world.
3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete.
The mark of someone who has been changed by the love of Jesus and filled with the power of his Spirit is that we actually follow him and listen to him. This is what Jesus invited Peter into after he had stumbled and fallen. This is the beauty and freedom of the Christian life: endless grace, so that we can follow Jesus with all that we are and walk in the light as he walks in the light.
Using our freedom to run back to darkness shows that we don’t really understand what Jesus has done. If we say that we love Jesus and follow him, but there is no change in us and no desire to actually live out what our mouths say, then we are liars. As John has made clear, it is not that we will never sin or stumble. But God’s truth is powerful, we cannot remain completely unchanged by his love. His light shows us the truth so that we can choose the same things that he chooses. When we truly love him, and truly understand his love, we want to keep his word, and in his grace, he helps us to. It is a process that will one day be made complete.
This is how we know we are in him: 6 The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.
Sometimes in our desire to focus on the goodness and grace of God, we forget that God has saved us for something. The purpose of grace is not to say that our sins don’t matter so we can keep doing whatever we want, the purpose of grace is to free us to walk with Jesus in light and truth. We were created to do the good works that he planned for us ahead of time: to truly love one another and enjoy fellowship and friendship together because we truly share in Jesus.
Just as it would be crazy to jump back into a raging ocean after the lifeguard had saved you, John is saying it is crazy for us to return to the darkness of living away from Jesus. If we are living in Jesus, and walking with him, the proof will be that we are in the places that he is, doing the things that he does, with the people that he loves. This is what it means to follow Jesus.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Light who drives out darkness. Thank You for cleansing us, forgiving us, and advocating for us. Help us to walk in the light as You are in the light. Strengthen our fellowship with You and with one another. Shape our hearts to love what You love and do what You command. Make us more like You each day. Amen.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Light who drives out darkness. Thank You for cleansing us, forgiving us, and advocating for us. Help us to walk in the light as You are in the light. Strengthen our fellowship with You and with one another. Shape our hearts to love what You love and do what You command. Make us more like You each day. Amen.
Reflection Questions
Use these to guide discussion or personal meditation:
Use these to guide discussion or personal meditation:
- John emphasizes what he has “seen,” “heard,” and “touched.”
How does knowing that Christianity is rooted in eyewitness experience strengthen your faith? - “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
What areas of your life still feel “shadowed,” and what might it look like to invite God’s light into them? - Confession is described as freedom, not punishment.
How does this picture of confession challenge or encourage you? - John says that fellowship with God naturally leads to fellowship with one another.
What helps you build genuine Christian community? What makes it difficult? - “Whoever says he remains in him should walk as he walked.”
What is one practical way you can walk more like Jesus this week?
Recent
Archive
2025
January
February
October
2024
No Comments